The present invention relates to apparatus for automatically feeding articles into an article processing machine, and more particularly, to apparatus for continuously correcting the positions of randomly spaced articles and transferring the articles with proper timing into the preceding conveyor of a horizontal wrapping machine.
Horizontal wrapping machines commonly use conveyors to feed a series of longitudinally spaced articles to a wrapping portion where one or more of the articles are placed into each wrapped package. Such wrapping machines conventionally are used with a feeder which receives abutted articles from a supply conveyor and separates these articles into a predetermined spaced and timed relation relative to the wrapping machine receiver conveyor. The feeder usually includes an article accumulation conveyor which operates at a high speed so that a back log of articles from the supplier conveyor are accumulated at the feeding station. Such a feeder may not work satisfactorily with delicate articles which may be damaged due to excessive pressure between the abutted articles.